Britons travelling to and from France will face severe disruption tomorrow as
airport and rail workers prepare to take part in a one-day strike for the
fourth time in a month.

At least half of the flights in and out of Paris Orly airport and one third of all services at Charles de Gaulle will be cancelled, while SNCF rail and Paris metro services will also be affected. SNCF said it expects at least two thirds of both high-speed TGV and regular regional services to be cancelled. Transport workers in 85 French cities have said they will strike.

Ryanair has already scrapped 250 flights, mainly from regional airports in the UK, and British Airways has warned its passengers to expect long delays.

Eurostar services will not be affected, although customers are being given the option of postponing their journey by up to three months in case of problems with connecting trains.

French workers have already carried out three strikes since the beginning of September over proposed pension reforms that would increase the minimum retirement age to 62.

Although normal services are expected to resume on Wednesday, some unions have threatened to prolong the strikes beyond tomorrow and have called for further demonstrations on Saturday. Railway workers will be asked to vote each morning on whether to continue to strike.

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Last week a number of airlines called on European governments to ban strike action by air-traffic controllers. A Ryanair spokesman estimated that strikes in Belgium, France and Spain this year had disrupted the journeys of more than 2.5 million passengers, while EasyJet estimated that the recent strikes in Europe would cost it about £6 million in compensation to passengers.